Interesting Items
Alex Gimarc
[email protected]
Monday, June 21, 2010
Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
1. Correction
2. Shakedown
3. Barton
4. Barges
5. Usibelli
6. DISCLOSE
1. Correction. Last week, I inadvertently conflated locations for wolf
attacks on humans on the Alaska Peninsula. The teacher was killed in Chignik
Lake; not False Pass. On the other hand, both locations have significant
problems with out of control wolf populations. Thanks to a valued
correspondent for picking up the error.
2. Shakedown. The Obama Regime conducted a shakedown operation of BP last
week. The initial down payment will be $20 billion. Ed Markey (D, MA) noted
in a House committee hearing that this was just a start. As BP does not have
that amount of cash on hand, they will be providing a lien against their
property here in the US, giving the Obama Regime the opportunity to seize the
company when they are unable or unwilling to come up with the vigorish in a
timely manner. The new slush fund for greasing palms of democrats and union
thugs was supposed to pay for damages from the oil spill. Instead, it will be
paid to whatever the WH or the loudest non-Red State congresscritter wants it
paid to. By weeks’ end, they were talking about using it for health care
funding and for paying newly out of work oil rig workers in the Gulf due to
Obama’s outrageous drilling shutdown. This is all very, very bad stuff, as
this money has been extorted from BP
by an out of control, thuggish government. This is not being done by the rule
of law, as there is a $75 million upper limit on damages. It is not being done
throughout the legal civil torts system. It is not being done with any
constitutional authority at all. Sadly, it is being supported by most democrat
members of congress. Even our Boy Senator, Mark Begich (D, AK) called for and
supports such a fund. Make no mistake, once this starts, there will be no end
to it. One of the things that this does is take BP off the hook for dealing
directly with the residents of the Gulf States on claims after the spill, which
may help explain why they went along with it. This is the same sort of logic
that the airlines used when they handed off passenger and baggage screening to
the feds after 9-11. It generally backfires on everyone concerned by putting
the feds in charge of things that rightfully belong in the open marketplace.
When this hits the
courts, do not expect BP to take full blame for oil hitting the beach.
Granted their actions put the oil into the Gulf. However, they did get federal
approval for the well, the well design, well operation, approval to drill,
cement, and shut down the well, which they were in the process of doing when it
blew. Additionally, the feds have been complicit in allowing the oil to hit
the beaches by not getting out of the way so the locals could save their way of
life. Obama and Salazar both in public over the course of the last 60 days
said that federal mistakes had caused oil to hit the beach. The feds have a
piece of this action, and have arguably caused the problem to get worse. BP
could have won some serious victories in federal court because of federal
inaction, mismanagement, turf wars, and malfeasance, for the feds screwed up
just as badly on this one as BP did. The irony of the situation is that BP
made a corporate decision some years
ago to cozy up to the feds, the greens and the left here in the US. They were
the largest donor to Obama among the oil companies. They have fully embraced
the green energy claptrap. They got very cozy with democrats in power at all
levels. This worked for while. But they are now expendable.
3. Barton. Joe Barton (R, TX) committed truth Thursday in a House Committee
hearing on the oil spill. As ranking minority member of this committee, he
personally apologized to BP executives testifying at the hearing for the WH
shakedown. After that statement, everyone acted predictably. Democrats
instantly had their “Macaca Moment” for this election. Expect an incessant
series of “gotcha” campaign ads against Republicans this fall. House
Republicans tucked their tails between their legs and headed for their favorite
hiding holes. House leadership threatened Barton with loss of his committee
unless he apologized for the comment. So Friday, Barton apologized for the
apology. The blogosphere and talk show guys were all jumping up and down
yelling “right on!” Conservative print and cable commentators opined on the
political idiocy of the comment. Note that nobody – nobody – involved other
than the Obama WH took
exception with the accuracy of the $20 Bil being the product of a shakedown.
4. Barges. Obama’s Coast Guard shut down Bobby Jindal’s oil skimming barges
last week. Jindal ordered the barges into the water on June 8. They had been
busily skimming oil on the top of the water, separating it from the water
skimmed, and put into barrels for disposal. The Coast Guard shut down this
successful wetland protection operation for 24 hours. The excuse given by the
Coasties was that they needed to make sure all the ownership and licensing
paperwork of the barge owners and operators were in order and that they had
enough life jackets for the crew. Whether orders for this came directly from
the WH or was the result of bureaucratic incompetence and turf protection by
the parties involved is irrelevant. If orders to shut down the state-operated
skimmers came from the WH, it confirms what we all have come to expect from
this group of goons, thugs and other neer-do-wells. If on the other hand, it
came as the result of
bureaucratic infighting and inter-agency rice bowl protection, we have another
problem. When you have an interagency operation like this spill cleanup,
someone has to be in charge – and that someone is the President or his
designated representative. His job is to play whack-a-mole with the
bureaucracy throughout the cleanup operation, and kick it back into play when
they lose track of the reason they are down there. Hint: it isn’t to inspect
barge paperwork and count life jackets while those barges are skimming oil out
of the Gulf. If the bureaucracy is this incompetent and non-mission oriented,
perhaps it is time to shut those agencies down and return the power and money
to the many states so that they can contract those services out.
5. Usibelli. The very left-leaning and green MatSu Borough Assembly approved
public access across Borough land for Usibelli Coal’s Wishbone Hill mine. The
vote was a surprising 6-1 in favor. The Assembly threw a bone to local NIMBYs
and greens by requiring Usibelli to do a few things with their trucks that they
would not normally do. This is the first pro-business action by the MatSu
Borough Assembly in years. And it is the first pro-mining action in the Valley
in decades. Congratulations to all involved. Now if Usibelli can keep
disgruntled NIMBYs out of state and federal court, they will be in business.
ADN, Thurs.
6. DISCLOSE. House Speaker pulled the DISCLOSE Act from House consideration.
This legislation is intended to overturn the SCOTUS decision allowing
corporations the ability to donate to political campaigns. That decision was
bitterly denounced by democrats nationwide because it tends to level the
fundraising playing field between those on the right and the left wing groups
like unions, greens, non-profits and lawyers. The unions decided that the
legislation would harm their ability to donate to political campaigns and
expressed their displeasure to Pelosi who promptly pulled the legislation. The
NRA managed to get themselves involved by reportedly striking a deal with House
democrats to support the legislation as long as they got a specific exemption
for NRA activities. This story hit the second amendment crowd midweek and they
predictably went nuts. Listened to NRA Executive VP Wayne LaPierre spent a
while on Laura Ingraham Tuesday
morning defending his actions. He claimed it was not a sellout, but a
defensive tactic that helped kill the legislation. I don’t know precisely what
they did, as inside baseball during the legislative process with this House
leadership is problematic at best. But at this point the legislation is
(mostly) dead. Note to the NRA: don’t get too cute, as your membership does
not trust congressional democrats at all. If you are viewed as cutting deals
with them, you will quickly lose what little credibility that you may still
have. Hot Air, Fri.
More later -
- AG
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not
your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your
chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia
State House, August 1, 1776.
Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations:
The Alaska Standard http://thealaskastandard.com/
MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com
District 28 http://www.dist28.com/
subscriber and supporter Elbert Collins at http://thatselbert.wordpress.com/
and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc
Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column:
http://www.thevanguard.org/
To read Alex Gimarc’s columns, go to http://home.gci.net/~agimarc/
To stay abreast Pro Life news, go to http://www.listcast.com/x?oid=20000g
For News with Attitude, email [email protected] with subscribe in the Subj.
For The Western Center for Journalism, fill out form @
http://fs7.formsite.com/C4Strategies/form377795450/index.html
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